DNC chairman: Searching Biden’s records is just like searching Hillary Clinton’s emails — ‘because there’s nothing there’

Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez compared calls for searching presumptive nominee Joe Biden's Senate records to searching 2016 Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton's emails, saying there is "nothing there."

"This is like the Hillary emails because there was nothing there," Perez said during a Sunday interview with ABC News' Martha Raddatz, in which the DNC chair defended Biden against allegations of sexual assault by his former Senate aide Tara Reade.

Former FBI Director James Comey concluded that then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and staff had been "extremely careless in their handling of very sensitive, highly classified information," though no charges were brought following the search of Clinton's private server.

Biden has denied the accusations launched against him by Reade and has asked the National Archives to release any record, should it exist, of the sexual harassment complaint Reade alleges she filed with the Senate in 1993.

The former vice president, however, is denying outside access to his career-spanning Senate records, which some believe may contain corroborating evidence. The files are currently being kept under lock-and-key at Biden's alma mater, the University of Delaware, where Biden has close ties with the people in charge.

Despite refusing to allow even a search of "Tara Reade" in the records, Biden reportedly sent campaign operatives to look through the records last spring shortly after he launched his presidential bid.

During the interview, Perez backed up Biden's refusal to allow a search of the Senate records, arguing that there's "nothing there." If there was anything there, argued Perez, former president Barack Obama would have found it.

"The most comprehensive investigation of the vice president was when he was vetted by Barack Obama in 2008," Perez suggested. "I'm very familiar with vice-presidential vetting process. They look at everything about you. They looked at the entire history of Joe Biden, his entire career, and I will tell you, if Barack Obama had any indication that there was an issue, Barack Obama would not have had him as his vice president.

"Barack Obama trusted Joe Biden. I trust Joe Biden," he added.